Bush Food Gathers Momentum as a Social Enterprise

Thursday, October 18, 2012

FEATURE: The concept of ‘bush tucker’ is uniquely Australian – romanticised by Hollywood as something Crocodile Dundee survived on – but now a group of Indigenous Queenslanders wants to turn the harvesting of native bush foods into a sustainable social enterprise.

With the catchy name of Murri Munchies Ltd, an alliance of community groups lead by the Murri people, from the remote and regional Indigenous communities of the Wide Bay/Burnett region of Queensland, has created a micro social and economic enterprise focussing on bush foods.

And they are looking for a unified approach to the project to ensure greater access to expertise, knowledge, skills and experience.

Led by project manager, Andrew Normoyle, a Murri man with extensive experience in food technology and production, Murri Munchies has done its homework to ensure that producing native bush food for a wide marketplace is sustainable yet remains faithful to their Aboriginal and bush culture.

“The “Feasibility of a Sustainable Bush Food Industry in Western Queensland, 1997” indicates that most of the major companies purchasing bush foods prefer to purchase from one organisation, rather than small amounts from a number of suppliers,” Normoyle explains.